Catalyst Meeting

This morning I attended our monthly gathering of pastors at Allison Park Church. We are part of a group of churches called Multi-Church Movements- Pittsburgh. This month our guest speaker was Earl Creps.

Earl is the former director of the Doctor of Ministry program at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. He recently resigned his position there in order to pursue a call from God to plant a church in Berkeley, CA. He gave a great talk this morning. You can find some good notes from it here on Jeff's blog and here on Nick's blog.

Narrow The Focus

Due to an unusual number of people unable to attend our monthly leadership meeting Sunday, I thought I just post up some of the notes from our discussion.

We've been working through some of the principles found in Andy Stanley's book 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. Without agreeing 100% with everything in the book, it does offer some very helpful insights into effective ministry practices. Here is an excerpt from some of our notes from Sunday:

•“Clarify The Win” is defining what success really is. It is defining the goal or target we are aiming for. For the church it is changed lives.

•“Think Steps, Not Programs” - Programs are not an end in and of themselves, they are steps in a process leading to spiritual maturity.

•“Narrow The Focus” is about deciding to do less in order to become more effective.

•Complexity diminishes your potential for
impact.

•We cannot confuse activity with effectiveness.
Activity does not equal effectiveness,
strategic activity equals effectiveness.

•The goal is not to do everything, it is to do a few things well.

•The more you focus, the higher the quality.

•The more you focus, the stronger the
impact.

Also, for anyone who is interested, you can subscribe to an audio podcast of each of the seven practices here.

How To Listen To Sermons

This is a 1-minute talk from John Piper on how to make the most out of listening to sermons.

Winding Down

The class this week has been incredible. We've had class everyday from 8am-5pm. Though my brain's almost exploded a couple of times, I think I'm going to be fine :)

But seriously, I've really learned a lot related to God's redemptive mission in the Bible. Today is the last day and we're nearing the home stretch. Right now we are covering the concept of the mission of God in Paul's theology in his letter to the Romans.

Though this week has been incredibly enriching, and I've enjoyed the company of many great friends, I can't wait to get home to be with my wife!

JRA Friends

Had a great time last night attending the prayer service at James River Assembly, the church I attended while in college. After the service I went over to the Realife Student Center and reconnected with some very dear old friends.

A significant part of my college years was spent helping the the Junior High ministry leading worship, a small group, and Sunday school. I'm so thankful for the years that I spent there. Really learned a lot during that season of my life.

So good to see some of the former students I used to teach who are now high school students! So good to reconnect with so many great people!

Memory Lane

Having gone to college here in Springfield, MO, I've been experiencing a flood of nostalgic memories as I drive on these streets again.

We all have memories that we would just as soon forget due to mistakes or rough circumstances. I also think that memory lane can be a very good place for us when we choose to remember the good things God has done in our lives in past years.

Occasionally we all find ourselves in seasons of discouragement. One of the main ways we can fight discouragement is to remember God's faithfulness to us in the past. By remembering God's goodness, we can wage war against the despairing thoughts we might be facing.

God did so much in my life during my college years in Springfield and it has been very good for me to think about his faithfulness to me during that time. If you happen to be going through a difficult time right now I want to encourage you to take a moment to remember the different times when God was there for you in the past and let it renew and refresh your hope for God's help in your current situation.

1-Week Intensive

I arrived last night in Springfield, MO for a week long class for my master's program at AGTS called "The Mission of God in Biblical and Contemporary Contexts." It is basically a course on developing a Biblical theology of mission. I'm really enjoying it so far. I hope to be able to post some interesting things that I learn during the week.

Praise God!

Service this morning was amazing! We had a record attendance of 111! and we were able to baptize 4 people! God is so good!



I never tire of hearing testimonies of God's power in people's lives. Baptism is always awesome. So cool how a 1st Century tradition can be so powerful today!

One Of Those Good Days

Had a great day today. I spent most of the morning revising the material in our Foundations course booklet that we'll be using for our New Member's Class coming up this Saturday.

It was great being able to think deep about our mission and vision and explain it in writing. I almost want to make all of our current member's go through the course again! (Don't worry, I wont :)

This afternoon I went with a friend to pick up the baptismal tank that we'll be using for the baptismal service this Sunday. Personally, I feel that baptizing someone is one of the most special privileges I have as a pastor. I'm really looking forward to it.

And the day's not yet over. Tonight I get to lead the rehearsal for our amazing worship team. It's such a privilege to minister with these people!

Bloglines Is Working For Me Again

For those of you who subscribe to this blog via bloglines, I believe the updating problem has finally been fixed. It should be updating for you now regularly.

Faith Or Fear

At our young adult group last night, one of the main ideas was the subject of choices. The choices we make in defining moments have the power to change the direction of our lives. Our lives really are the sum total of the different choices we've made.

Obviously some choices are more critical than others. Who we marry, where we live, where we work, where we serve in ministry, are all way more important than which pair of shoes we decide to wear in the morning. It's in these important moments where our choices matter the most.

Perhaps the most important decisions we make are related to how we respond to God's calling on our lives. Just as clarification, I believe God has a calling and a purpose for every one of us, not just pastors and missionaries. Not everyone's calling looks the same, but everyone has a unique purpose from God. Not everyone is called in the same way. Sometimes God speaks to people in dramatic ways and sometimes he calls people to things more subtly.

So, when it comes to God's call on our lives, what will we choose to do? For some of us, the calling God has for us is something that looks impossible. It may seem unattainable or even foolish. The main question is, are we going to base our choices on fear or faith?

In Numbers 13, Moses sends men into the promised land of Canaan to spy out the land. This was land that God had already promised to the people of Israel. All the spies came back afraid of the people of the land except for Caleb and Joshua. In 14:8-9 they said to the people

"8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them."

They didn't allow the opposition to diminish their confidence in God's ability to lead them into his plan. Neither should we. When it comes to God's calling, will we choose fear or faith?

Anniversary Weekend!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend since Sunday is our 1-year anniversary! Can't believe it's already been a whole year.

Guess time flies when you're in love :) Jess you're the love of my life!

New Members/Baptisms

Just wanted to post a reminder about our New Members Class taking place from 11am-1pm on Saturday, October 20 @ ACC. Lunch will be provided. You are welcome to attend if you are interested in becoming a member or would just like to learn more about our history, vision, and beliefs. If you would like to attend, please rsvp by sending us an email here.

The following Sunday, October 21 we will also be having water baptisms in the morning service! If you have not yet been water baptized since placing your faith in Jesus Christ, you won't want to miss this opportunity to publicly demonstrate your commitment. You can also rsvp to participate and get more details by emailing us here.

Websites

Just wanted to pass along a couple of websites of note. The church that started us almost 10 years ago, Allison Park Church, recently got a new website. You can check it out here.

Also, here at ACC we are a part of a group called Multi-Church Movements- Pittsburgh. You can also see the new website for the broader Multi-Church Movements here.

Life In Action

This weekend we'll be starting a new message series called "Life In Action". This series is all about learning how to put our faith into action, or maybe better, putting action into our faith.

Next week we will hear from Eric Ferguson, originally from Pittsburgh, now a missionary to Nicaragua. He and his wife Shanna are the founders of Metanoia Missions International, a ministry whose vision is to transform nations through the establishment of churches, schools, orphanages, micro-businesses, and humanitarian aid.

Then on Oct. 21 we'll celebrate with those who are taking action through water baptism in our morning service!

Growing In Godliness

This was the third message in our Disciple series called "Growing In Godliness" from 2 Peter 1:3-11.

Seminary

After some deliberation I finally decided to transfer my graduate credits back to AGTS (where I started) in order to finish my M.Div through them. The cool part is that I won't need to move to Springfield in order to complete it. I've enrolled in the "In-Service" track which is designed to allow pastors and missionaries to finish their degrees while remaining in their ministry positions. It's set up to be completed through correspondence courses, online classes, and 1-week on-campus modules.

For this fall, I've enrolled in a course called "The Mission of God in Biblical and Contemporary Contexts". It's a 1-week module course held in Springfield in late October. It sounds like it's going to be pretty good. I'm also looking forward to visiting my college hometown yet again :)

I've really enjoyed my Seminary experience thus far. Jessica and I both share the conviction that we want to be lifelong learners. Seminary helps me solidify that conviction.